Once considered a form of flattery, piropos have since devolved into something that looks a lot like street harassment. A panel of experts discusses whether it's time to retire the practice.

The mayor of Buenos Aires, Mauricio Macri, made headlines recently when a photo of him ogling an underage pop star went viral. Macri had already carved out a reputation as a bit of a letch when he said of efforts to reduce street harassment, "Women who say they don't like it, and are offended by it, I don't believe it. There is nothing nicer than a piropo, even if it's accompanied by something offensive, if someone says 'nice culo' [nice ass], it's all good."

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If Macri's words were graphic, they nevertheless speak to the tradition of piropos — public comments made to women — as both a relic of 19th-century courting practices and a form of harassment. The culture of piropos still affects U.S. Latinas today as they experience street harassment through a complicated combination of race, gender, and economics. A 2014 survey from advocacy group Stop Street Harassment found that African-Americans and Hispanics were more likely to say they experienced harassment than non-Hispanic whites, and that 70 percent of Latinos surveyed said they feared escalation and reprisal from their harassers. Hispanics were also most likely to have been street harassed prior to the age of 17.

In an effort to understand how piropos affect Latinas, Cosmopolitan.com reached out to three activists and experts — Mariana Achugar, assistant professor of Hispanic studies and second language acquisition at Carnegie Mellon University and author of Piropos as Metaphors for Gender Roles in Spanish Speaking Cultures; Juana María Rodríguez, professor of gender and women's studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lani Shotlow Rincon, who is on the board of directors of advocacy group Stop Street Harassment and the author of the My Name Is Not Hey Babycampus guide to ending street harassment — to discuss what precisely the term means and what can (or should) be done to mitigate its effects.

What are piropos, and how do they differ from street harassment as it's understood in the U.S.?Mariana Achugar: Piropos are a form of flirtatious street talk that typically were considered compliments that used language play and referred to women's physical qualities or men's chivalry such as, "Tus ojos son dos luceros," [Your eyes are two stars]. Nowadays, these practices have changed, along with the roles of men and women in the cultures where they are used [to]. Both men and women are the subject of piropos, and their structure has become more direct and sexualized, e.g.,"Estas para chuparte los dedos, sos un bonbon," [You are finger-licking good, you bonbon] or, "Que curvas!" [What curves!].

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In what ways does street harassment differ for Latinas than other women?Juana María Rodriguez: I have a lot of conflicted feelings about the current discussion about street harassment, and how that does and doesn't always relate to what we Latinos might call piropos. Part of it is understanding how public space functions. For example, in most parts of Latin America you don't need to know someone to say, "Buenos Dias." In fact, it's seen as a common courtesy, a respectful way to acknowledge someone in the street. We are encouraged to kiss strangers hello when we are introduced; we are taught to be open and sociable. And I think some Latinos, both men and women, might still think of piropos as another way to be friendly or to greet somebody with a compliment.

It can really feel threatening, unsafe, and oppressive, especially when something is being aggressively demanded of you, even if it is just a smile.

The problem is that it is only men who get to occupy that verbal space, so it is almost as if they are claiming the street for themselves and they get to sit in judgment of the women that pass by. So it really isn't a friendly compliment if it just reinforces heterosexual male power to claim public space. And it can really feel threatening, unsafe, and oppressive, especially when something is being aggressively demanded of you, even if it is just a smile. Sadly, we also know that rejecting a piropo, or responding in certain ways, can be deadly.Lani Shotlow Rincon: Anecdotally, as a Latina, and as a woman of color, I believe that my street harassment experiences have been inexorably linked to my race and are related to the dominant stereotypes of Latinas as hypersexualized, exoticized, and existing solely for the gratification of men. I believe that for Latinas and within Latino cultures, the historical and cultural practice of piropos is the dominant way of expressing machismo. This further works as a way to restrict and control the spaces that women have access to. Both are about expressions of power and part of a larger problem of gender inequality wherein men objectify women to exert their control over them.Achugar: There's a lot of variation within Spanish-speaking women as to what constitutes harassment depending on their age, socialization experiences, and ideology. I think that we need to explore these issues in ways that acknowledge the historical connections between language and culture. What is considered acceptable behavior in public spaces is connected to the power women hold in society. Even though Latin American women hold more political power than U.S. women — for example, there have been a record number of women elected president in the region — men are still in power in most aspects of life. That is why these practices still exist and women's rights in the public space and representations of their identities as sexualized objects are still debated.

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In what ways does street harassment differ for LGBTQ-identified Latinas?Rodriguez: Once again, it's about who has the power to judge and determine who does or doesn't belong in the street or the neighborhood. For people who don't fit traditional definitions of masculinity or femininity, or who consciously try to disrupt gender binaries, these moments on the sidewalk can seem downright terrifying. So it is important to see the connections between gender-based street harassment and other forms of speech such as racist or homophobic language that work to exclude some people from civil society, words that are intended to make you feel unwelcome and unsafe.

For people who don't fit traditional definitions of masculinity or femininity ... these moments on the sidewalk can seem downright terrifying.

Is it time to ban piropos? Can it be done, or should it be done?Rodriguez: I don't want to contribute to a discourse that is about demonizing or worse, criminalizing, Latino and black men for not fitting into standards of respectable white masculinity, because we know that any efforts to "ban" or criminalize forms of street harassment are going to be carried out in ways that disproportionately target men of color. Race and class have everything to do with the current discussion, because even though women of color are most often the targets of these forms of verbal abuse, from the media's depiction, it often seems as if this is about protecting white women from the threats of scary and sexually predatory brown and black men without recognizing how white men of privilege actively deny women reproductive freedoms, equal wages, day care, and access to other public goods and public spaces. Those are hidden but equally dangerous forms of sexual harassment that need to also be addressed.Achugar: At this time, there are several social movements that have emerged in places like Argentina and Chile where women are demanding legal protection from street harassment. These movements want to regulate what can be said to women in public spaces. There has also been an effort to educate the public on how these discursive practices affect women through publicity campaigns and street posters. I would think it'd be hard to regulate speech, but education campaigns focusing on sexism in language have had some positive results. In Spain, for example, there are explicit programs focusing on raising awareness and providing alternative ways of representing women and social roles. I believe language and culture are intrinsically related, so changing the way we speak can have an impact on our cultures. However, it is important to remember that what constitutes harassment is not the same for all. These practices have to do with other power dynamics that are still in place. Transforming the roles of men and women in society requires more than just changing discourse practices like piropos.Shotlow Rincon: Given the historical legacy of piropos, I think it is very important to address that these acts that were once considered romantic and poetic before the 20th century have no place nor context in the modern world, and that they now, in fact, have detrimental effects on women's ability to feel safe and comfortable in public spaces. Once we can develop this general understanding, we can educate people about the realities of the practice and why it needs to be eliminated. We can also look to see whether the laws on the books adequately protect women. Tool kits like Know Your Rights: Street Harassment and the Lawcan help women know the legalities surrounding street harassment in the U.S. and serve as valuable resource for victims to make informed decisions regarding the how to report harassment behaviors. Once we gain more voices around this problem, we can rally to push for more legislation and resources that serve and protect Latinas and women of color.

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How can we reduce some of the negative side effects of piropos?Shotlow Rincon: I highly recommend that the best way to cope with the negative effects is to speak about your experience. Whether you lend your voice publicly, or just to a friend or family member, it's important that a woman speaks through her experience and expresses her thoughts and feelings about it. I know we all wish we had been able to speak up in the moment or have the "perfect" retort, but speaking about your experience reinforces that you have a voice, you have an experience, and the effects that piropos have are very real. I've also personally found that for me, the best way to cope with harassment is to be an activist against the practice. I've felt very empowered through working with women's rights organization and advocating to end street harassment. Through this work, I am able to have a voice, I'm enabled to hollaback at my street harassers, and I silence their effects on me.

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